Results at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics helped climb the charts
THE TOP MEXICANS OF 2021
The Mexican sport begins 2022 with several of its representatives in the Top Ten of their respective world rankings, highlighting the women’s archery team, made up of Aída Román, Alejandra Valencia and Ana Paula Vázquez, and the racquetball player Paola Longoria, who finished the 2021 at the top.
In most cases, the results in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games helped to climb positions in the lists, but there were also World Cups and other important competitions, such as racquetball, a non-Olympic discipline, in which tricolor stood out.
Here is the Top 7 of the Mexican athletes or teams that appear these days among the first 10 of their specialties.
LEADER ARROWS
The women’s recurve archery team made up of Aída Román, Alejandra Valencia and Ana Paula Vázquez was left off the Tokyo 2020 podium, but won silver at the Archery World Cup in Yankton, USA. Both results, as well as those obtained in the World Cup series, positioned the tricolor team as the leader in the World Archery world ranking.
In addition, Valencia, Olympic bronze in a mixed team with Luis Álvarez, finished 2021 in the sixth step of the individual event.
FIRST RACKET
Paola Longoria dominated the racquetball courts for one more season. Her fourth world singles championship and 112 titles allow her to stay at the top of the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) ladder.
Longoria is a multi-medalist in Central American and Pan American Games and is one of the most dominant players on the professional circuit of the last decade.
Congratulations to @paolongoria on her singles and doubles wins at the Christmas Classic! We will be back in February as our season continues. #racquetball #raquetbol #LPRT pic.twitter.com/6GC70wzJOM
— Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) (@LPRTour) December 14, 2021
WELL NAILED
The sixth place on the Tokyo 2020 springboard placed Aranza Vázquez as one of the revelations not only of Mexican diving but also worldwide.
The 19-year-old athlete occupies the best position in the individual FINA rankings, as she appears in the third place of her test.
The bronze medalists on the synchronized platform, Alejandra Orozco and Gabriela Agúndez, also occupy the third position on their list.
TEAMWORK
Softball became the first team sport classified to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and having defeated the powers of this sport at least once, as well as the Olympic competition format, with the participation of only six teams, outlined Mexico. as a potential medalist.
However, things did not go well for the team made up of mostly Mexican women born in the United States and the national team finished in fourth position, which it occupies in the last ranking of the year by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
GOOD GOING
The marcher Alegna González had an outstanding performance in her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, finishing in fifth place in the 20 kilometers. Thanks to his performance in the summer event, and although he had few competitions in 2022, he is ranked fourth in the ranking of his World Athletics event.
González, the 2018 U-20 world champion, has her sights set on the Eugene World Athletics Championships in July.
POWERFUL LEGS
Mexican track cycling continues to be well positioned in the rankings of the world, having Yuli Verdugo, an Olympian in Tokyo 2020, as its best representative by occupying the fifth position in the Keirin and the ninth in Speed in the lists of the International Cycling Union ( ICU). Executioner ranked 23rd in the Keirin of the Japanese Olympians.
Next October, Verdugo has the World Cup of the specialty in France.
FINE AIM
The shooter Jorge Orozco was one of the pleasant surprises at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by staying one step away from the podium in the Olympic Pit.
The first Mexican to qualify for the Japanese summer event and champion in the Pan American Games in Lima 2019 finished in the fourth Olympic position to become one of the best exponents of his test worldwide. He ends the year in rung ten of his weapon of the International Federation of Sport Shooting. (Agencies)
